Ep399: Fernando LoFrano – A Good Friend is Not Always a Good Partner

Andrew Stotz 00:01
Hello fellow risk takers and welcome to my worst investment ever stories of loss to keep you winning. In our community. We know that to win in investing, you must take risk. But to win big, you've got to reduce it. To join our community go to my worst investment ever.com right now, and you will receive the following five free benefits first, you get the risk reduction checklists I created from the lessons I've learned from all my guests. Second, you get my weekly investment research email to help you increase return third, you get a 25% discount on all a Stotz Academy courses for you get instant access to our Facebook community to get to know guests and fellow listeners. And finally you get my curated list of the Top 10 podcast episodes fellow risk takers. This is your worst podcast host Andrew Stotz from a Stotz Academy, and I'm here with featured guests, Fernando the fronto. Fernando, are you ready to rock? Yes, I was born ready. Love it. I love it. Let me introduce you to the audience. Fernando No. fronto is a Brazilian it, executive, promoter, and consultant in digital transformation. acting as an agent of transformation in organizations impacting the transition of business models and operations to the new digital age. As one of the most influential in the information technology space in Latin America, he is an IT governance specialist with an MBA in project management. He is also the author of the role of project management in digital transformation. Fernando take a minute and filming for the tidbits about your life.

Fernando LoFrano 01:53
So I've been living in Brazil, I'm 39 years old. And since my childhood, I've been fascinated by technology, Star movies, video games, in computers are my passion. And now I've been aligning everything to business. I've studied many courses ABOUT IT management. And I've got my MBA in project management from Julio Vargas foundation. Recently, I wrote my book about my experience on information technology, and project management. I'm a business IT consultant currently and it directs.

Andrew Stotz 02:52
Now. Wow. And let me ask you, what do you do in your free time when we don't have COVID nightmare.

Fernando LoFrano 03:05
Lately, I'm riding my bike over neighborhoods and towns city near here.

Andrew Stotz 03:20
That's great. I love to get up early in the morning and bike. And what's great about it when you bike around the neighborhood is it doesn't matter if the parks are closed or other places are closed because of COVID. You can still go out and go out and make it happen. All right, well, now it's time to share your worst investment ever. And since no one goes into their worst investment thinking it will be tell us a bit about the circumstances leading up to it and then tell us your story.

Fernando LoFrano 03:49
So when I was 22 years old, I started my intrapreneurship journey. And for two years I've been looking forward to for some practice or a different way to manage in my new businesses focused focused on it. So part by the way I was starting are challenging and it was defying me, of course, and then I decided to invite a friend when 610 six years older than me to be my business partner. From the beginning, every situation about the new business always sounded like poetry. But over time, things went hard. And it's certainly needed maturity to make good decisions. My business partner has the maturity, but not ambition for business. And about me, I have always had anxiety to make things happen. Even though both grades first sexes, but in order to make money, hard to work is needed a lot of work hard. Imagine it seminary with two situations, one partner with family and other businesses to care, and another young partner yearning for challenges and make his success fast. So certainly, it didn't work. It was four years, with many arguments and repeat, it comes and goes until the end, ever at all, it was game over for the business partnership. And each one went to his destination.

Andrew Stotz 06:14
And how much time did that all, you know, did you lose? Or money? Or what was the loss from them? Probably four years? And, and how did you feel? You know, as you came to the end, and you knew it was going to end? How did you feel about yourself? Or about the situation?

Fernando LoFrano 06:45
It was sort of time, because I was very anxious. A lot of anxious because hard, hard to decisions anywhere, anytime, and different. Saw sucks?

Andrew Stotz 07:10
And how would you summarize what you learn from this experience?

Fernando LoFrano 07:17
I could start planning better my decision with effect affect my friendships? Is that a good moment? I should have Brexit, empathy. But I was a young man with a lot of thirst to put this on the agenda.

Andrew Stotz 07:43
Right? So better planning, and also considering if it would affect your friendships, and then having empathy? Yeah, maybe I'll summarize what I took away from this story. One of the things that I think about about this empathy is that we have to understand that each person goes into a business project or business startup with different expectations, different hopes, and different fears. And when we don't understand the other ones, fears or expectations, then it's almost guaranteed to come to problems. So I think that one lesson I take from what you said is try to be open from the beginning, about your expectations, and all that. The second thing is, will it affect my friendship is another thing. I started a business with my best friend 26 years ago, and we've survived. But when we started a business, we made an agreement. If this business will break up our friendship, we will close the business. And we've lived on that agreement. And that means that when we fight or argue about things, we stay respectful of each other, because we want we value the friendship. And the third thing is understanding that there's a balance in business. We need different people with different experience, and even different expectations. But that also brings conflict. We need that conflict, but that conflict can be dangerous, or even deadly for the company. And there's no perfect answer for that. But the point is if you just do it all alone, and everybody around you thinks the same, is very difficult to be successful. So those are the things that I take away from your story is there anything that you would add to that

Fernando LoFrano 10:02
You just told me a similar situation, we need to have empathy, because I have got a friend. And when we have new situations, to make decisions, we need to empathy, empathy, to,

10:35
to

Fernando LoFrano 10:38
clearly make our decisions.

Andrew Stotz 10:44
Now, that's valuable. And in order to have empathy, you need to listen. And that's, you know, a key element to building a successful friendship, relationship or business is listening and empathize, emphasize emphasize em for being having empathy. Let me ask you, based on what you learn from this story, and what you continue to learn, what one action would you recommend our listeners take to avoid suffering the same fate?

Fernando LoFrano 11:22
A good friend is not always a good business partner. Find partners with different skills, but the same engagement to target success in practice the planning? Yeah,

Andrew Stotz 11:40
yeah, it's great. You know, the point is, you know, you need different types of people, but you have to have your interests aligned. So my last question for you is, what is your number one goal for the next 12 months?

Fernando LoFrano 11:52
Well, I have finished my book. And now I am going to sell and introduce to people my experience over the road, who knows. Great.

Andrew Stotz 12:10
And for the listeners out there, to get to know Fernando just come to the show notes, we'll have links to all this stuff, linking to him so that you can learn more. Well, listeners, there you have it, another story of loss to keep you winning. My number one goal for the next 12 months is to help you my listeners, reduce risk and increase return in your life. To achieve this. I've created our community at my worst investment. ever.com. See you there. As we conclude, Fernando, I want to thank you again for coming on the show. And on behalf of a Stotz Academy, I hereby award you alumni status for turning your worst investment ever into your best teaching moment. Do you have any parting words for the audience?

Fernando LoFrano 12:57
Well, as Lincoln would say, if I only had an hour to chop down a tree, I would spend the first four to five minutes sharpening my axe.

Andrew Stotz 13:16
Beautiful, so valuable. And that's a wrap on another great deeply, deeply valuable. Help us to help us create, grow and protect our well fellow risk takers. This is your worst podcast host Andrew Stotz saying. I'll see you on the upside.